Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

At this stage the Minister knows the Exchequer returns due to be published in the next hour. Does he expect the tax receipts for the year to be closer to between €31 billion and €32 billion than the €34.4 billion he projected at the time of the emergency budget six months ago?

Does he accept that the past two deflationary budgets have hit tax revenues hard, worsening the already perilous state of the public finances? The Minister, in his reply, drew attention to the fact that exports are holding up, confirming that it is the collapse in the domestic economy and demand which is at the heart of the deflationary and depressive spiral in which the county finds itself. As the economy faces a collapse in demand, the current cause of the crisis, does he accept there is a revenue crisis as much as there is a spending crisis in the public finances? If the Government keeps cutting key services and public spending, the deflationary spiral will get worse.

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